Sunday, December 31, 2017

Two excellent articles from the mainstream to close out the year.—TPOI
editor

The Teens Trapped Between a Gang and the Law

On Long Island, unaccompanied minors are caught between
the violence of MS-13 and the fear of deportation.

By Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker

January 1, 2018

Juliana grew up with a single memory of her father. He was
sitting in the half-light of evening on the porch of their home, in a small
town in El Salvador, while her mother cooked dinner in the kitchen. A man in a
black mask emerged from the darkness. Juliana heard three gunshots, and saw her
father fall off his chair, vomiting blood. She was three years old at the time,
and afterward she wondered if the killing had actually happened. The most
tangible detail was the man in the mask, who came to seem more present in her
life than her father ever was. Juliana used to find her mother by the windows,
pulling back a corner of the curtains to be sure that he had not returned. “It
was like that man went on living with us,” Juliana told me. One day when she
was older, her mother said that a gang called the Mara Salvatrucha, also known
as MS-13, had killed her father for refusing to pay a tax on a deli that he
operated out of the house.[…]

What “chain migration” really means — and why Donald Trump
hates it so much

“Family-based immigration” doesn’t sound as scary — or
get at the fear of losing control.

By Dara Lind, Vox

December 29, 2017

Over the course of President Donald Trump’s first year in
office, his administration’s top immigration priority has shifted subtly. He’s
talking less about deporting “bad hombres” and talking more — a lot more —
about how “chain migration” is bad for the United States.

“We have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get
rid of the chain,” Trump told the New York Times’s Mike Schmidt in an impromptu
interview at his West Palm Beach golf club in December.[…]

Monday, December 25, 2017

Congress has passed its short-term spending bill in time to
go on Christmas vacation. The politicians managed to forget their promises to
protect DACA recipients, despite a week of militant
protestsbyDreamers at the Capitol. Meanwhile, journalist Todd Miller
reminds us via tweet
that “separating children from their parents has been part of the
policy/strategy for quite a while”; he adds a link to a November 2011 report
by the Applied Research Center. Still, we’ve been seeing an intensification of
the practice under the Trump administration, and we can expect things to get
worse if we don’t respond forcefully.—TPOI editor

DACA Recipients’ Message to Democrats: Stop Playing with Our
Lives, and Pass a Clean DREAM Act Now

Dreamers protest in Schumer's office. Photo: The Intercept

Democracy Now!

December 21, 2017

As Congress passes a massive rewrite of the U.S. tax code
that could mean the largest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in history,
it is also negotiating a stopgap spending measure that will not include the
DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to recipients of the Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. This comes as seven young DACA
recipients and one ally were released from jail Wednesday after six days in
jail on hunger strike. The eight were arrested Friday during nonviolent sit-in
protests inside the offices of Democratic lawmakers, demanding they commit to
voting “no” on the spending bill this month unless it includes a version of the
DREAM Act without concessions for funding for the border wall or enhanced
border security. We are joined by Erika Andiola, one of the eight activists
just released and a nationally known immigrant activist who served as a
spokesperson for Bernie Sanders and helped him craft immigration policy. She is
the political director for Our Revolution. She is a DACA recipient who grew up
in Arizona, where her house was raided in 2013 and immigration agents picked up
her mother and brother.[...]

“Pathetic”: Democratic Leaders Called Out for Betraying Vow
to Fight for Dreamers

By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

December 22, 2017

In September, Democratic leaders assured 800,000 young
immigrants that they would make use of their leverage in year-end spending
battles to pass a clean Dream Act. On Thursday, Democrats folded on this
promise without much of a fight, allowing a continuing resolution to pass both
houses of Congress and heading home for the holidays while leaving thousands of
immigrants in "legal limbo."

“Quite frankly, it's a pathetic way for the Democratic
Party’s leadership to close out a year in which millions of Americans fought
back and resisted the Trump regime’s racist, xenophobic, and dangerous agenda
with an inspiring wave of grassroots activism from coast to coast,” CREDO
political director Murshed Zaheed said in a statement following Thursday's
vote. “This is a monumental failure.”[…]

The Trump Administration Is Separating Children From
Asylum-Seeking Parents at the Border

By Katie Shepherd, Immigration Impact

December 11, 2017

José Demar Fuentes and his son. Photo: PBS News Hour

An alarming trend along the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated
within the last year: the inhumane practice of separating immigrant children
from their parents at the hands of U.S. immigration officials. Not only is this
practice deeply traumatic for the families involved, it flies in the face of
established U.S. and international law.

In response to this grave violation, the American
Immigration Council, in collaboration with the Women’s Refugee Commission and
several other immigration rights organizations, filed a complaint with the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil
Liberties (CRCL) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), demanding an
investigation into this uptick in family separation.[...]

Migrant seeking asylum says his toddler was taken away at
the U.S. border

PBS News Hour

Dec 22, 2017

At least four Central American men in this California
detention facility say U.S. immigration officials took their children after
they arrived at the border, asking for asylum. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement says the agency separated the children for their safety, because
the men didn't have enough proof they were the fathers. Special correspondent
Jean Guerrero of KPBS in San Diego reports.[...]

Friday, December 22, 2017

The Washington Post reports that the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) is again considering former department head John Kelly’s proposal to separate Central American children from their
parents, supposedly in order to deter a “surge” in entries by asylum seekers. In
November, 7,018 families were detained at the southwestern border, a 45 percent
increase over October's figure; the number of “unaccompanied alien
children” rose by 26 percent. The families and unaccompanied children were
largely from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Post reporter Nick Miroff (Twitter @NickMiroff) did a great job in
breaking the story. Still, we have to wonder why he gave two paragraphs to the
far-right Center for Immigration Studies’ Andrew R. Arthur (email ara@cis.org) to explain why the policy only seems
heartless. And the story itself raises a lot of questions:

1. Republicans blamed the Obama administration for a similar
uptick in entries by Central American families and children during the first
half of 2013. The claim then was that Obama
policies such as DACA encouraged the increase. Now we have a new uptick
following Trump’s decision to end DACA. Are Republicans going to say the Trump
administration is too soft on immigration?

2. Is there really a “surge,” or is this just deferred
immigration? Entries were significantly down at the beginning of the
year as potential immigrants waited to see how bad the Trump policies might be.
Have people who put off the journey back then now decided they can’t
wait any longer?

3. What are factors in the main sending countries that might
have pushed more people to leave in November? For example, Honduras was to hold
elections at the end of the month. Many people might have left because they feared that
violence would break out during the election period—as actually
happened.

4. Much of the violence in the sending countries is
connected to the drug trade. The U.S. has been engaged in a so-called “war on
drugs” since the Nixon administration, including military
aid to Central American countries. The results haven’t been
encouraging: U.S. drug overdose deaths rose from less than 10,000 in 1980 to about
64,000 in 2016. Why aren’t we reconsidering our militarized strategy
for curbing drug abuse?

5. Two of the three sending countries—Honduras and
Guatemala—happen to be among the nine
countries that supported the United States in a December 21 UN General
Assembly vote on Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. On November 28 the Trump administration certified the Honduran
government’s record on human rights, and on December 22 the administration recognized the Honduran regime’s widely disputed “victory” in the
November elections. Isn’t it interesting that so many people are fleeing
countries whose governments seem to be so close to the current White House?

6. Is the increase in entries by a few thousand children and
families really a serious crisis? More
than 200,000 U.S. citizens have moved from Puerto Rico to Florida alone
since hurricane Maria struck their homes in September. Why does this large
increase in the mainland population get comparatively little attention? Is it
because it highlights inadequaciesin the Trump administration’s relief efforts for Puerto Rico, or because it
might focus attention on climate
change denialism in the White House?

7. In short, even if the arrival of Central American asylum
seekers is actually a problem—which is questionable—why try to solve it by
traumatizing children and parents? Why not just end
the U.S. government policies that force them to flee here?—TPOI editor

The Trump administration is considering measures to halt a
surge of Central American families and unaccompanied minors coming across the
Mexican border, including a proposal to separate parents from their children,
according to officials with knowledge of the plans.

These measures, described on the condition of anonymity
because they have not been publicly disclosed, would also crack down on
migrants living in the United States illegally who send for their children.
That aspect of the effort would use data collected by the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to target parents for deportation after they attempt
to regain custody of their children from government shelters.[...]

Thursday, December 21, 2017

On December 20 President Trump commuted the 27-year prison
sentence of former kosher meatpacking magnate Sholom Rubashkin for bank fraud.
Rubashkin had headed the Agriprocessors Inc. company, whose plant in Postville,
Iowa, was the scene of a massive military-style workplace
raid in May 2008. Federal agents arrested 389 immigrant workers, including
18 ranging in age from 13 to 17; most of the detained workers spent five
months in prison on charges related to their immigration status and were then
deported. The raid took place as the United Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW) was trying toorganize
the plant.

Rubashkin had a number of prominent supporters, including
more than 30 current members
of Congress from both mainstream parties. His backers noted that
Rubashkin’s sentence was exceptionally severe, raising suspicions that it was
influenced by his ethnic background—he’s a member of the Jewish Hasidic
Chabad-Lubavitchgroup. They also stressed his close relationship with an autistic
son. There are certainly reasons to question the length of Rubashkin’s
sentence, but we have to wonder why so little is said about his mostly Latino
former employees, who were subjected to multiple labor violations at the plant
and then jailed and exiled for the supposed crime of working to support
themselves and their families. And what about the suffering of their
children? As for Rubashkin’s sympathizers in Congress, they can take the time
to write letters supporting commutation of one man’s prison sentence but
apparently can’t be bothered to pass
legislation for nearly 700,000 current DACA recipients, who are now losing their protection from
deportation at a rate of 122 each day.—TPOI editor

President Commutes Sentence of Iowa Meatpacking Executive

By Mitch Smith, New York Times

December 20, 2017

President Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence of
Sholom Rubashkin, whose Iowa meatpacking plant was the target of a huge
immigration raid in 2008, and whose 27-year prison sentence angered many
Orthodox Jews.

Mr. Rubashkin made national headlines nine years ago after
federal agents arrived by helicopter at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville,
Iowa, and detained nearly 400 undocumented immigrants, including several
children, who were working there. Mr. Rubashkin was the company’s chief
executive, and the plant had been the largest kosher meatpacking operation in
the country. He was later convicted of bank fraud in federal court.[…]

Republicans are misleading everyone — including themselves —
about how long they have to fix DACA

How the DACA deadline actually works — and why Trump and
Congress can’t just punt on it.

By Dara Lind, Vox

December 20, 2017

Congress is moving to clear off most of its urgent business
before leaving for the holidays, with one exception: a bill that would address
the 690,000 unauthorized immigrants protected from deportation under the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

GOP leadership has refused to concede it was a priority. And
Democrats — for whom a DACA fix once seemed important enough to withhold votes
on key spending bills, potentially risking a government shutdown on Friday —
appear to be backing down.

So if DACA doesn’t need to be taken care of now, when does
Congress need to act on it?[...]

A group of Dreamers -- including a former Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign staffer, Erika Andiola -- have been on a hunger strike since they were arrested Friday after a sit-in at the Capitol, at the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Dreamers are vowing to continue their hunger strike until Schumer and GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Florida win enough votes in the Senate and the House to delay a vote on the spending bill and force a vote on a clean DREAM Act. They're pushing for a vote on such a bill on Dec. 22, the date when lawmakers must pass a new spending bill in order to avert a government shutdown.

A spokesperson for Andiola, Candice Fortin, told The Slot that the group was arrested for staying at the building after-hours, technically for what was considered unlawful entry. Neither Schumer nor Curbelo was in his office during the protest.[…]

A group of Dreamers claim to have gone on hunger strike in a
Washington, D.C., jail until Congress commits to forego passing an
end-of-the-year spending bill without a "clean" DREAM Act.

According to a statement provided to The Slot, the seven
Dreamers and an ally to their cause were arrested on Friday during sit-ins at
the offices of Senator Chuck Schumer, the leading Democrat in the chamber, and
Representative Carlos Curbelo, a pro-immigrant Republican.[…]

In addition to the online
petition from New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA),
Change.org has started its own petition demanding that New York Chief Judge
DiFiore bar ICE from courthouses to prevent further detentions of immigrants
when they try to appear in court.—TPOI editor

Saturday, December 16, 2017

This is the text of an email from Presente Action
about the arrests of seven activists at the Capitol on December 15 for sitting
in at congressional offices to demand inclusion of the Dream Act in the
upcoming federal spending bill. Strangely, no major media seem to have covered this action so far
except forSputnik
News, which is connected to the Russian government news
agency. For additional coverage, go to Latino Rebels.—TPOI editor

By Presente Action

December 16, 2017

Last night, seven DACA recipients were arrested on Capitol
Hill demanding that Congress pass a clean Dream Act as part of the year-end
spending bill. Erika, Belen, Cata, Hector, Barbara, Li and Juan Carlos are now
in custody and are refusing to identify themselves — attempting to remain in
jail — until Congressional leaders confirm that they will block any spending
bill without protection for DREAMers.

This is a powerful demand and an unprecedented sacrifice
from undocumented youth that needs to be amplified and supported across the
country! Will you help?

This is urgent. We have until December 22nd to ensure
Congress passes a clean Dream Act and grants permanent protection to
undocumented youth as part of the spending bill. And with brave DACA
recipients risking deportation in D.C., we are building the momentum to make
that possible!

From December 18th-22nd, undocumented immigrants and allies
will be taking action in Washington, D.C. and around the country. Can you join
an action or organize an action near you?

More than 3 months have passed since the White House
repealed DACA, and Congress says there’s no urgency to act by the end of the
year. But every day the Dream Act does not pass, undocumented youth are at risk
of detention and deportation. Thousands have already lost their work
permits, jobs, and sense of safety.

Right now in Washington, D.C., DACA recipients are making a
deep sacrifice — staying in jail and risking deportation — as a call to action
to the nation. Will you heed their call?

This is the moment to stand
firmly with undocumented immigrants. Please join us in D.C. or attend an action
near you.

December 18th is the 7th anniversary of when the original
Dream Act died in the Senate. The #OurDream alliance is 10 years in the
making. We have a real opportunity to make 2017 the year that the Dream Act
finally passes. But to win, we need to make tons of noise and demand
#NoDreamNoDeal. All the politicians who claim to “stand with the DREAMers” must
do more — they must commit to rejecting any spending bill that does not include
the Dream Act.

The plan is that Erika, Belen, Cata, Hector, Barbara, Li and
Juan Carlos will refuse to identify themselves — attempting to remain in jail —
until Congressional leaders confirm that they will block any spending bill
without protection for DREAMers. Courageous, undocumented youth are taking
on tremendous risk.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Democratic Congressional
leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi still claim they’ll get “something on
immigration” before the year ends, but they’ve backed off their threat to shut
the government down if Congress doesn’t move to protect DACA recipients.
Meanwhile, 12,000 of these Dreamers have already lost their DACA protection,
and at least one is now in detention.—TPOI

Update, 12/15/17: Osman Enriquezwas released from detentionon December 14, following the publication of the Vox article on his case the day before.

February protest in Seattle. Photo: Ted S. Warren A

Democrats back off DACA shutdown threat

By Ted Hesson, Politico

(with help from Ian Kullgren, Andrew Hanna and Timothy Noah)

December 13, 2017

DEMS BACK OFF DACA SHUTDOWN THREAT: “Democratic leaders
aren’t going to shut down the government to save DREAMers in December,”
POLITICO’s Heather Caygle and Elana Schor report. “Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi haven’t stopped fighting to
deliver something on immigration by the end of the month. But they’ve subtly
shifted their rhetoric in recent days and aren’t insisting that deportation
relief be paired with a government funding bill this year.”[...]

Exclusive: the Postal Service kept him from renewing his
DACA. Now he’s in immigration detention.

Pennsylvania father Osman Enriquez was waiting for a
letter telling him to reapply.

By Dara Lind, Vox

December 13, 2017

A former DACA recipient who was waiting to reapply for
deportation protections, after his initial application was rejected due to
postal service delays, is currently in the custody of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in Pennsylvania, Vox has exclusively learned.

Osman Enriquez, who was picked up by ICE Monday morning
after a routine traffic stop, is one of the estimated 12,000 immigrants who
have lost their DACA protections since the Trump administration started winding
down the program in September.[…]

Monday, December 11, 2017

New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA) has started an online petition to demand that New York Chief Judge DiFiore bar ICE from
courthouses to prevent further detentions
of immigrantswhen they try to appear in court. Please sign and circulate
the petition.—TPOI editor

On November 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
agents collaborated with court officers and administrators to detain a public
defender’s client at the Brooklyn Misdemeanor Court. In response, dozens of
public defenders marched out, demanding that Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and the
Office of Court Administration implement policies to prevent New York
courthouses from collaborating with ICE.

This is the seventieth time this year that federal agents
have detained undocumented immigrants at New York courthouses as they perform
their civic duties.

It's time to turn up the pressure on Chief Judge DiFiore and
make our voices heard. Send her a letter demanding she bars ICE from
courthouses NOW!

Sunday, December 10, 2017

A Border Patrol agent shot an apparent border crosser
dead on November 29 in the Tohono O’odham Native American Nation, which has had
many problems with the Border Patrol in
the past. The government promised an investigation of the latest
shooting, and the incident quickly dropped out of the news. In contrast, Kate Steinle’s tragic death continues to get media coverage—it’s become an argument
for Trump’s border wall, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with failures in border security.

And why would we want a wall? The New York Times
reveals that even the best border security isn’t going to stop drug dealers.
The main reason for the wall obsession is undoubtedly the psychological appeal
of walls to some personality types, but we shouldn’t forget that certain people
stand to make a killing—the financial kind—on the Great Wall of Trump.—TPOI
editor

Arizona: Border Patrol Kills Migrant on Tohono O’odham
Reservation

Democracy Now!

December 1, 2017

In Arizona, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed an
undocumented migrant in a remote mountainous region on the Tohono O’odham
Nation on Wednesday. The shooting occurred about 20 miles away from the
U.S.-Mexico border. The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson sector is
claiming, without evidence, that the shooting occurred after the man grabbed
the gun of one of the agents. Migrant justice groups are demanding the killing
be investigated.

[C]alls to name Trump’s intended border fortification
“Kate’s wall”… would make it the world’s largest free-standing non sequitur.
Garcia Zarate’s presence in the United States does not prove the weakness of
our border security. Just the opposite.

By Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune

December 6, 2017

One night last month, a Border Patrol officer in Southwest
Texas was killed and his partner seriously hurt while on patrol near the
Mexican border. What quickly emerged was a gruesome tale. The officers were
“ambushed by a group of illegal aliens” who smashed their heads with rocks,
according to the head of the union representing Border Patrol agents.[…]

Instead of smuggling heroin through ports of entry or
across the border, the cartel’s traffickers exploited weaknesses in border
security: parcels shipped through the mail, UPS and FedEx; air cargo; and
travel on transit systems with relatively little security, like Amtrak.

By Ron Nixon, New York Times

December 2, 2017

BALTIMORE — The tip came on the last day of January 2014 to
special agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement: A drug courier was
about to land at the Baltimore airport with a large shipment.[…]

Wall Street Stands to Make a Killing From Building Trump's
Border Wall: Report

Hate is profitable for the Mercers, BlackRock, JPMorgan
Chase, and Wells Fargo.

By Ilana Novick AlterNet

November 16, 2017

The border wall with Mexico, Donald Trump's proposed
monument to nativism and bigotry is, according to an October story from NBC
News, at least 10 months away from "meaningful construction." It
currently has no funding from Congress nor from Mexico, contrary to reports
from Trump's fever dreams. This reality hasn't dimmed the visions of dollar
signs in the eyes of America's largest corporations, which, according to a new
report from Make the Road New York, the Center for Popular Democracy, New York
Communities for Change, and the Partnership for Working Families, are behind a
company making one of the wall prototypes and stand to benefit handsomely.[…]

Friday, December 8, 2017

On November 29, 2017, Border Patrol agents from the Tucson
Sector shot and killed a migrant in a remote region of the Baboquivari
mountains on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Rodolfo Karisch, Chief Patrol Agent of
the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, justified the killing, saying that after two
agents chased and tried to detain a group, one individual became “assaultive.”
There is no independent corroboration of this version of events.

We recognize this as murder, and part of a larger trend of
Border Patrol acting with impunity in remote desert regions. Border Patrol
tactics of chase and scatter are violent and regularly result in death and
disappearance.

The shooting happened on Tohono O’odham land, high in the
mountains, over 20 miles from the border. This is a direct result of border
militarization where urban crossings have been sealed and internal checkpoints
have been implemented, pushing people further into the mountains where agency
accountability and oversight is impossible.

We reject the categories of criminalization that puts every
migrant and refugee in the borderlands directly in the crosshairs of Border
Patrol sights. These boundaries and borders were drawn by the imposition of a
white settler nation and US imperialism. Border enforcement is genocide. This
impunity to kill will not go unchallenged.

We demand the opening of investigations of the 55 people
murdered directly by Border Patrol and we demand justice for all the victims
and their families.

No one deserves to die this way. We grieve this life, and
all lives lost in the militarized borderlands.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) – A week after public defenders staged a
walkout in protest of immigration agents carrying out courthouse arrests,
attorneys joined a throng of several hundred protesters Thursday on the chilly
front steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall.

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, ICE has got to go,” they chanted, using
the abbreviation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that appeared in
many of the home-made signs dotting the crowd.

“Melt ICE,” one said. Against a backdrop of these signs, and
more official placards that carried the names of groups like the Association of
Legal Aid Attorneys, the Osborne Association and New York City Public
Defenders, several speakers addressed the crowd in both Spanish and English.[…]

Modern Courts releases Report on ICE (Immigration and
Customs Enforcement) and New York Courts

Protecting the Administration of Justice in New York
State: Impact of ICE Arrests on New Yorkers’ Access to State Courthouses

December 5, 2017

Press Release : New York, NY – The Fund for Modern Courts
today released a report entitled, Protecting the Administration of Justice in
New York State: Impact of ICE Arrests on New Yorkers’ Access to State
Courthouses, which proposes four new policies and protocols to ameliorate the
significant increase of enforcement actions by U.S. Customs and Immigration
Enforcement (“ICE”) in state courthouses and to ensure the proper
administration of justice.

Amelia T.R. Starr, Esq., Vice Chair of the Fund for Modern
Courts and one of the authors of the report, said, “Immigrants are intimidated
by ICE’s deliberate decision to target New York’s courthouses for enforcement
actions. They fear ICE retaliation at the courthouse steps. Every time fear of
ICE keeps a New Yorker from entering the courthouse, access to justice is
compromised.”[…]

Thursday, December 7, 2017

JOIN US at the Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF)
where we are IN COMPETITION for Best Documentary Feature!

"While the dominant narrative of the mass
incarceration of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II has
been one of general cooperation, filmmaker Konrad Aderer (ENEMY ALIEN) explores
the much-suppressed history of those who protested their unjust imprisonment.
When forced to pledge their unconditional loyalty to the United States
government, many refused. Some were deported to Japan, and over 12,000 were
deemed “disloyal” and relocated to what came to be known as the Tule Lake
Segregation Center, a militarized camp where resistant citizens faced further
abuse and torture. Aderer combines rare historical footage with emotional oral
histories from survivors and their descendants to uncover the overlooked
stories of Japanese American citizens who protested racism, immigrant
scapegoating, and white supremacy. RESISTANCE AT TULE LAKEsheds light on a
dark period in American history and offers a reminder of the dangers of fear,
hate, and the marginalization of immigrant and minority communities."

On Tuesday, dozens of public defenders walked out of
Brooklyn Criminal Court after a Legal Aid client was detained by Immigration
& Customs Enforcement in Brooklyn Criminal Court in collaboration with
Court Officers and the Court Administration. They marched to the Brooklyn
District Attorney’s office, demanding that the Office of Court Administration
and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore implement a policy to would prevent New York
Court staff from collaborating with ICE officers or entering Court property.

Please join us on Thursday, December 7th, at 1pm at Brooklyn
Borough Hall for a mass rally with our union, other attorneys, and community
and immigrant organizations to demand that the Office of Court Administration
and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore implement a policy to bar ICE agents from
entering NY Court property.

Chaos erupted at Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday morning
after agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement snatched a defendant
in the hallway, prompting a walkout by public defenders and accusations from
court officers that Legal Aid attorneys had physically attacked them.

Genaro Rojas Hernandez, thirty, was in court to face charges
of violating a restraining order. Just after 11 a.m., after a judge asked him
and his court-appointed attorney to step into the hallway with a Spanish
interpreter, Hernandez was arrested by ICE agents, according to his lawyer,
Rebecca Kavanagh. After the arrest, attorneys with the Legal Aid Society
stormed out of the courthouse on Schermerhorn Street and held a noisy picket
line outside the building, calling on immigration officials to stay out of the
courthouse.[…]

Despite New York’s being a sanctuary city, ICE is prowling
the courtrooms.

By Michelle Chen, The Nation

December 5, 2017

Last week, a Brooklyn court building became the latest
flashpoint in Trump’s border war: Genaro Rojas-Hernandez, an undocumented
immigrant, was at a criminal court for an unrelated assault charge, when
he was arrested by ICE agents. The clash between federal immigration agents
and a local criminal-justice process spoke to a new constitutional crisis
unfolding in the city’s criminal-justice system.[…]

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

This Washington Post op-ed is one of the few pieces in the
mainstream U.S. media to note the link between immigration from Honduras and
the corrupt and repressive U.S.-backed government there. Far from connecting
the dots, most U.S. media are downplaying the current electoral crisis. By contrast,
there’s excellent
reporting from Allan Nairn and others on the ground on Democracy Now! for
December 5.—TPOI editor

By Kendra McSweeney and Sarah Chayes, Washington Post

December 5, 2017

The news out of Honduras has taken dizzying turns since the
Nov. 26 presidential election — some predictably sickening, but some so
exceptional as to startle even veteran analysts of this Central American
country. A partial recount of disputed ballots now puts the incumbent, Juan
Orlando Hernandez, ahead by a whisker – after inexplicable halts and delays in
the counting.

That Hernandez should seek to doctor the numbers is no
surprise. What is remarkable — and what deserves the support of democracies
everywhere — is the civic patriotism of everyday Hondurans, who braved the odds
to vote massively against a power grab Hernandez has been engineering for
years.[…]

Saturday, December 2, 2017

After six days of deliberation, on November 30 a San
Francisco jury acquitted Mexican immigrant José Inez García Zárate of murder
and manslaughter charges in the July 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle.
Prosecutors said García Zarate (AKA Juan Francisco López-Sánchez and Francisco
Sánchez) had purposely shot into a crowd of tourists, while the defense claimed
the bullet, which hit Steinle on a ricochet, was fired accidentally. The jurors
found the prosecution case open to reasonable doubt, although they convicted
the defendant of felonious possession of a firearm.

José Inez García Zárate. Photo: Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle

President Trump and rightwing propagandists like Ann Coulter
had tirelessly exploited Steinle’s death as an example of violent crime by
undocumented immigrants against U.S. citizens—and as a justification for border
walls, mass deportations, and a cutoff of funds to so-called “sanctuary
cities.” Naturally, the president and his supporters tweeted furiously against
the jury’s decision.

Sloppy media coverage of the case has tended to provide
cover for Trump’s side. For example, there’s been almost no discussion of how a
revolver fell into the hands of a homeless immigrant in San Francisco. An agent
of the Bureau of Land Management had left the loaded weapon inside a car parked
in a high-crime part of the city—a violation of BLM policy and an
invitation to theft. It's not clear whether the BLM, an obscure federal agency, has disciplined the
careless officer—or explained why its employees would ever need to carry arms.

Meanwhile, media outlets repeat endlessly that García Zarate
had seven felony convictions and was deported five times. Sources rarely
mention that four of the convictions involved drug possession and the remaining
convictions were for illegal re-entry of the U.S. None of the convictions were for
violent crimes, although Trump and others dishonestly called the immigrant
violent. García Zarate seems to be a mentally disturbed person with a drug
problem; at one point a federal court recommended sending him to a medical
facility. And if anything, his record of deportations should make people
question the wisdom of shipping immigrants out of the country as a way to stop
crime. They can come back, and no amount of border security guarantees that
they won’t. Wouldn’t it have been better to keep García Zarate here and try to
deal with his drug issues?

Actually, what would happen if we provided drug addicts
treatment instead of imprisonment, tried to rehabilitate foreign-born convicts
instead of deporting them, and limited the number of irresponsible government
employees roaming the streets heavily armed? Probably Kate Steinle would be
alive today, along with many others, including a large number of the more
than 59,000 who died of opioid overdoses last year.—TPOI editor

A jury handed a stunning acquittal on murder and
manslaughter charges to a homeless undocumented immigrant whose arrest in the
killing of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco Bay pier intensified a national
debate over sanctuary laws.

In returning its verdict Thursday afternoon on the sixth day
of deliberations, the Superior Court jury also pronounced Jose Ines Garcia
Zarate not guilty of assault with a firearm, finding credence in defense
attorneys’ argument that the shot that ricocheted off the concrete ground
before piercing Steinle’s heart was an accident, with the gun discharging after
the defendant stumbled upon it on the waterfront on July 1, 2015.[…]

Trump Is Outraged an Undocumented Immigrant Just Got
Acquitted of Murder

The president called the verdict "disgraceful"
after making Kate Steinle's killing a centerpiece of his border wall proposal.

By Drew Schwartz, Vice

December 1, 2017

A murder case that helped fuel Donald Trump's call for a
border wall ended in an acquittal on Thursday when a San Francisco jury found
undocumented immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty in the shooting death
of 32-year-old Kate Steinle, the Washington Post reports.[…]

So why is all the attention on
an immigrant who was at the end of an unfortunate chain of events?

By Matt Gonzalez, 48 Hills
(San Francisco)

July 21, 2017

Kate Steinle was killed two years
ago in San Francisco after a gun stolen from a car was discharged on Pier 14, a
popular tourist attraction. Homeless immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez
handled a discarded bundle that contained the firearm, resulting in the
unintentional shooting. A single bullet ricocheted off the ground, travelling
100 feet before striking Steinle.[…]

San Francisco has become an anti-immigration punching bag
in the wake of a grisly killing. But there’s little evidence that the city’s
sanctuary law was to blame.

By Daniel Denvir, CityLab

July 9, 2015

An undocumented immigrant named Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez
allegedly shot and killed Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco's Embarcadero last
Wednesday. And it turns out that the city's Sheriff's Department had released
Lopez-Sanchez earlier this year after refusing an Immigration and Customs
Enforcement request to detain him—all to comply with a city policy protecting
everyday undocumented immigrants from deportation.[...]

About The Politics of Immigration

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers is a book that goes beyond soundbites to tackle concerns about immigration in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. For immigrants and supporters, the book is a useful tool to confront stereotypes and disinformation. For those who are undecided about immigration, it lays out the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion. Ideal for classroom use, the updated and expanded 2017 edition provides a succinct overview of U.S. immigration history, policy, and practice, with detailed notes guiding readers toward further exploration.
Guskin and Wilson have written extensively on immigration and facilitated dozens of dialogues on the topic with students, community activists, congregations, and other public audiences. To arrange a dialogue or for more information, contact them at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.
To stay in the loop on author events and related resources, follow the book on Twitter (@Immigration_QA) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ImmigrationQA/).